


reveal your hands (and show your heart)

by wanhedalycia



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Truth Serum, all inspired by real conversation, emma's super gay, like the gay panic in this fic is real, we all share her thoughts about the evil queen dresses tho let's be real
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 17:24:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13081671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanhedalycia/pseuds/wanhedalycia
Summary: “Your inner thoughts are incredibly eloquent, I must say.”oremma accidentally makes a kind of truth serum and then proceeds to be Very Gay





	reveal your hands (and show your heart)

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys so like this is my first sq fic so maybe don't like. completely destroy me? idk. anyway this is for a friend bc she dragged me into the ouat fandom kicking and screaming but then wrote me a bed sharing fic bc i literally asked her to bc she's an angel and so i wrote her a truth serum one as thanks. also she's really sick rn so like. go n give her fics some love bc she's a great writer :)

“-so if that’s okay with you, I’m just going to poof back home quickly?” 

 

She looked up from the book she was studying - or rather trying to, seeing as it all looked like it was written in like, Ancient Greek or Hieroglyphics or something - as Regina turned the corner, missing the start of the sentence. 

 

“Sorry, what?” 

 

Regina rolled her eyes but repeated herself anyway, pulling various bottles out of chests and drawers as she spoke. “I said, Henry can’t find his soccer cleats anywhere so I’m just going to locate them for him.” 

 

“Cool. What’s all this?” She squinted at the things Regina had put in front of her on the desk, reaching out to grab one of them but retracting it just as quickly as the brunette sharply batted her hand away. 

 

“These are the ingredients for a locator spell.” 

 

“But making potions is boring, I want-” She started, but was cut off. 

 

“Potions are a vital part of learning to control your magic. It’s necessary.” 

 

“Boring.” 

 

“Necessary.” Regina corrected, with a slight growl that absolutely did not make her shiver. Not at all. 

 

“But I’m dumb! I’m Charming spawn! I can’t do it without your supervisation!” Emma pleaded, hoping Regina’s deep set hatred (although lately it was more of a shallow, half-hearted distaste) for her mother would win out against her want for proper education. Regina raised an eyebrow. 

 

She sighed. It didn’t work. 

 

“As much as you insulting yourself is music to my ears, I will not allow it to sway me. If I stay I’ll just end up doing it all for you.” Regina turned to find a spellbook from one of her - impeccably clean, which, how? - bookshelves. 

 

“It’s difficult!” Emma whined, childlike, and she thought she saw a smile pull at the corner of her mentor’s lips before she schooled her expression and turned again, a jar in her hands. 

 

“If Rumplestiltskin’s pet can create a locator spell, dear, I’m certain you can. Try not to turn yourself into a toad, I may not find motivation to turn you back.” She threw out her jibe flippantly before waving her hands. 

 

“That can happen? Regina, that can- Regina!” She slumped in her chair, the hard wood of the back digging into her neck as purple smoke momentarily clouded the small space inside the vault. “Stupid dramatic exits.” 

 

She considered procrastinating for a while and just telling Regina she couldn’t do it (then thought of how disappointed and angry she would be, and forgot about that idea), or poofing out of there herself and straight to Granny’s for pancakes or hot chocolate or waffles or- 

 

Her stomach growled. 

 

Magic made her hungry. 

 

‘It would appear any form of mental exercise makes you hungry, Miss Swan’ Regina’s amused voice as she watched Emma practically inhale a stack of pancakes at one of their lunch dates echoed in her brain, and she blushed at the embarrassment she felt even in her memory. 

 

Wait, since when did she start calling them ‘lunch dates’? They weren’t dates. They were just two people eating together. That’s not a date. She eats lunch with Henry all the time. 

 

Then again, Henry isn’t exactly Regina. 

 

She doesn’t want to make out with Henry. 

 

Obviously. Since he’s her son and all, and now she was weirded out and still blushing and she quickly opened the book to the page Regina said and studied it. 

 

Thank fuck, this one was in English. 

 

She skimmed over the introduction to the spell, already knowing what the spell did and how to use it - like Regina said, even Belle could make it, and she didn’t have magic - and went straight to the ingredients list. She double checked everything Regina had laid out for her and found she was missing only some kind of snake venom, so went to one of the cabinets on the far side of the wall to find some. She grabbed it, frowned at the name, flinched at how the glass felt almost burning to the touch and made a mental note to tell Regina that she should probably find a better quality bottle. 

 

And then she was off. 

 

Potions weren’t actually the worst and she didn’t really hate them, she just strongly disliked how vague the quantities could be. ‘A pinch’ to whoever wrote this could have a completely different idea to Emma about what constituted ‘a pinch’. Same for ‘a sprinkle’, and she lost her shit at ‘a hearty amount’. 

 

But Regina always looked so calm and confident doing it and the logical part of her brain told her it was because she was taught properly, that it was because she had been doing it for decades now, but the Romantic with a capital R part of her brain told her it was because Regina could feel it. That her magic inside her just knew, that she was in touch with the potion. 

 

Either way, Emma had no other instructions to go by and so threw caution to the wind as she bunged all the ingredients into the pot, stirred it a number of times and- 

 

Ended up choking on a cloud of orange smoke. 

 

And, as she was hacking and gasping in what she was sure was a very attractive, put-together manner, Regina reappeared, eyes immediately shaded with concern as she strode over to where Emma was still bright red and oxygen-deprived. 

 

“Emma? Emma, what happened?” 

 

“Oh my God, I’m-” She spluttered, wheezing heavily. “I’m dying Regina, tell Henry I love him.” 

 

“Oh, for God’s sake.” Regina conjured a bottle of water, ripping off the lid herself and thrusting it at Enma. “Drink.” She ordered. 

 

“Thanks.” She managed to gasp out, before chugging half the bottle in one go, her eyes fluttering shut at the sensation of the cool water on her burning throat. “Wow. Thanks. That was terrifying.” She tried a weak smile, but Regina looked furious. “Uh-oh.” 

 

“Nothing that I set out for you should have possibly caused you to choke like that. Tell me exactly what you did.” She spoke through gritted teeth, hand clenching and unclenching around the back of one of the chairs. 

 

“Nothing bad! I was following the instructions! I was making the locator spell thing!” 

 

“No. You did something.” Regina’s tone was low and accusatory and wow, okay, totally not hot at all. “What was it?” 

 

“I literally just checked all the ingredients, saw you had forgotten the snake venom, got some, bunged it all in the pot! That’s what it said to do!” 

 

She defended herself valiantly, but could only shrink under Regina’s gaze. Could only sit there in silence as she felt eyes turn her blood to ice. 

 

“What. Snake. Venom.” It wasn’t posed as a question. 

 

“Uhh, the one that turns the tube hot?” She offered meekly. 

 

“Mussurana snake venom.” Regina supplemented. She closed her eyes, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. “And you just put it all in the flask, in whichever order you fancied?” 

 

“Um? Yes?” She asked, more than she answered. 

 

“Stupidity truly is hereditary, and this proves it. How could you possibly be so careless?” Regina’s voice grew almost into a yell towards the end of her sentence, and Emma found her shrinking into her chair slightly. 

 

“I wasn’t being careless! I was doing what you asked!” 

 

“No, I asked you to successfully make me a locator potion! But no, you find it impossible to actually read instructions, despite how detrimental it may be to you!” 

 

“What?” 

 

“The instructions, Miss Swan!” Emma rolled her eyes a little at the name calling. “They very clearly state that the ingredients must be used in the order they have been listed!” 

 

And just like that, Emma felt like an idiot. A massive, fucking idiot. 

 

“And you couldn’t even be bothered to read them! Even knowing how dangerous magic can be! Even knowing you have a son who needs you, you were still reckless and careless and stupid!” Regina snarled out the last word and Emma physically recoiled. 

 

“Regina, I’m sorry.” Her confession surprised even her, and Regina stopped from where she was pacing to turn and look at her, some of the anger replaced with shock. 

 

“Pardon?” 

 

“I’m sorry. It was foolish of me and I should have read the instructions properly without assuming I knew everything about making the potion.” She offered, startling Regina with her honesty. 

 

Regina’s anger seemed to deflate slightly at that, and she slumped into the chair opposite Emma with a weary expression plastered on her face. 

 

“You nearly gave me a heart attack. 

 

“Yeah, you looked pretty worried for me there for a moment.” Emma smiled slightly, and Regina rolled her eyes. 

 

“Not a chance, Miss Swan. I just didn’t want anyone discovering your dead body in my vault. I can’t imagine that would have gone down well with your insipid parents.” Regina examined one of her nails, but Emma could still see the relief exuding from her body. 

 

“So what was the orange smoke? Because my lungs are still kind of burning.” 

 

Regina’s head snapped up. “Sorry, 'orange smoke'?” 

 

“Yeah? That was why I was, y’know, choking?” 

 

Regina’s eyes widened as something clicked in her brain. “Truth serum.” 

 

Emma’s palms immediately began to sweat. “I- what?” 

 

“You made truth serum. Or some variant of it, I can only assume.” Regina said, a smirk pulling at the corners of her lips, almost imperceptibly if someone other than Emma was focused on them. 

 

“Wait, what do you mean a ‘variant’ of truth serum? What will it do? What will I say?” She could feel her stomach start to twist with dread at the idea of Regina asking her questions and her answering them completely honestly. 

 

“I mean that the truth serum, when made correctly by someone who can accurately follow a set of instructions,” She paused to glare at Emma pointedly. “- is an orange tinted, slightly glimmering liquid. My guess would be that the fact that you used the Mussurana venom - a key ingredient for truth serum - instead of a stronger one like the instructions clearly say swayed the potion.” 

 

Emma scowled at the same time as realising that Regina would make a great teacher, and then blushed at the thought of Regina as a teacher, and decided to abandon the train of thought completely. 

 

“So I made something that makes me tell the truth, but we don’t know what it does or how it works or how long it will last or anything that’s remotely important?” 

 

“It would appear so.” A corner of her mouth tilted up before she could stop it, and Emma realised why Regina wasn’t fuming like she was earlier. 

 

“Oh my god, you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” She accused. 

 

“I have no idea what you mean, Miss Swan.” Regina stood to clear some of the pots and bottles off the table, her hair swinging in front of mischievous eyes. 

 

“Yes you do! You love that you might have complete power over what I say!” Regina just laughed in answer, and she grinned despite herself. 

 

Then it hit her that she still had to go back to the loft after their session was done, and judging by the tidying that was happening around her, that would be soon. 

 

“Shit. Regina. I can’t go home.” 

 

“Why not?” Regina called over her shoulder, opening and closing cupboards around the room. 

 

“Because all I do is lie to my mother! What if she asks me if I like her meatloaf? If I’m all, what, hopped up on truth serum, I won’t be able to lie! Regina, come on. You know how bad her meatloaf is.” 

 

Regina let out a quiet snort and she marvelled at how undignified it was, only realising it was aimed at her after she appreciated how good carefree looked on the queen, and so her pout returned full force. 

 

“It’s hardly my problem that Snow White is inept at making dinner, Emma.” She came back to sit down opposite Emma, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs and looking every bit as smug as she could. 

 

“Can’t I stay here a bit longer? Just until we know what I did to myself.” She pleaded, taking a leaf out of Henry’s book and batting her eyes. Regina’s mouth twisted and she raised an eyebrow, ready to protest, but Emma beat her to it. “Please?” She added. 

 

Regina let out a half-hearted noise of disgust. “Fine. I guess we might be able to stay a while longer. Henry is playing soccer with Nicholas for the next-” She glanced at her watch, “-hour and a half.” 

 

“Thank you so-” 

 

“But if nothing happens in that time I’m heading to pick him up. Understood?” 

 

Emma grinned. “Understood. So, boss lady, what’s first on the agenda?” 

 

Regina smirked, waving her hand before a book slammed down in front of Emma, a familiar page opening in front of her. “You will be accurately making a locator spell.” 

 

Then, she cackled. 

 

* * *

 

“Regina, I’m bored.” 

 

“It’s been three minutes.” 

 

“Meditation is boring.” She cracked an eye open to see Regina looking at her, completely unamused. 

 

“It’s not meditation. It’s feeling your magical energy. Becoming familiar with it.” She stood from where she was perched on the table, going over to one of the tall closets and rummaging around in it. 

 

Emma caught a glimpse of red and black fabric, and realised that Regina had kept some of her Evil Queen dresses. What for? She didn’t seem like the nostalgic type, really. Then again, there was a lot she didn’t know about Regina. She did know that she’d look great in the dresses, if the illustrations in the storybook were anything to go by. Regina should definitely try them on. For no other reason than- 

 

“Why would I do that?” 

 

“What?” Emma was startled out of her revelry by Regina looking at her like she had grown another head. Wait. She brought a hand up to feel her head, just in case. No, still one head. 

 

“Why would I put the dresses on?” 

 

“I didn’t… What?” 

 

“You just said that I should try the dresses on.” 

 

“No, I didn’t I-” 

 

Oh, no. 

 

Oh, _god_. 

 

Well, shit. 

 

“Emma?” 

 

“I thought it.” 

 

“Emma, what are you-” 

 

“I thought it. I was thinking that and then I said it.” 

 

Regina froze. Emma closed her eyes, brought her head down to the table. 

 

“I think I know what the orange smoke does, Regina.” 

 

“It removes your brain to mouth filter.” 

 

Emma brought her head up a few inches, just enough to make eye contact with the other woman who looked like she was still processing. “This isn’t good.” 

 

“No, it’s not.” 

 

“It’s not a good idea for me to be around anyone right now, probably.” She mentally ran through everything she had to do that night. Dinner with Mary Margaret. Hanging out with Henry. Going back to the loft. Having a beer with David. 

 

Absolutely none of those things can happen with Emma running her mouth. 

 

“What could you possibly say to Henry?” Regina asked, outraged, and she was confused for a second until she remembered. 

 

That his mother is, like, smoking hot? 

 

Was the first thing that popped into her head. 

 

Which was of course, the first thing that left her mouth. 

 

She froze. Regina froze. 

 

“Uh. Um, I didn’t. Uh. Mean that.” Except she totally did. Fuck, wait. 

 

“Did you mean it or not, Miss Swan?” 

 

And god, fuck, now Regina was calling her Miss Swan which was the hottest thing on the planet and, fuck, shit, she was saying this out loud and- 

 

“I didn’t realise it had such an effect on you.” Regina’s lips pulled into a full smirk, predatory and evil and, _fuck_. “Miss Swan.” She added. 

 

“Uh. I should. Go. Probably.” She heard herself say the words but her ass was still glued to the chair, legs feeling like dead weights underneath her. 

 

“If I asked you why you wanted me in one of my Evil Queen dresses, what would your answer be?” Her eyes glinted dangerously and her eyebrow rose as if she was asking an innocent question and Emma felt her throat dry up in an instant. 

 

Don’t think about Regina in the dresses, don’t think about Regina in the dresses, don’t think about how absolutely fucking glorious Regina’s tits would look in the dresses- 

 

_Fuck_. 

 

Regina stalked towards her. 

 

_Fuck. Shit._

 

“Your inner thoughts are incredibly eloquent, I must say.” 

 

She settled on the table in front of Emma and she didn’t even have to worry about her lack of filter because she wasn’t thinking anything. 

 

She couldn’t think anything. Her entire brain was filled with _ReginaReginaRegina_  and Regina’s eyes darkened as she leaned in. 

 

“What do you want, Emma?” 

 

She didn’t give her thoughts the chance to escape without her permission. 

 

“You.” 

 

And then Regina grasped the sides of her face and lifted her up at the same time as she rose to meet her and their lips met and, fuck, fuck, god this was literally everything she had ever wanted and then Regina was pulling her hair to tilt her head back and her lips were making their way down her neck and nipping and sucking and fuck what she said before, _this_  was everything she had ever wanted. 

 

She barely clocked that Regina was laughing but she whined at the loss of her tongue on her pulse point and unfocused eyes soon focused on swollen lips. 

 

“You’re adorable.” She swooped in to kiss Emma’s lips gently. 

 

“Huh?” 

 

“You were muttering “You’re incredible” the entire time I was doing that.” She chuckled softly. 

 

“You kinda are.” She barely managed to choke out, before the pull of Regina’s lips grew too strong and she pulled her in by the back of the head until they were kissing again, this time slower, with more care and passion until Regina groaned low in her throat again and it was messy and hot and unrestrained again. 

 

Regina pulled away - again, which Emma absolutely did not appreciate at all, and she thinks she said as much but she can’t really remember - to mutter a quick “Only ‘kinda’? I’ll have to see if I can change that.” before she waved a hand and they were in a bedroom somewhere in the mausoleum. 

 

And then fuck everything she had said earlier, seriously, because she was tearing Regina’s clothes off and this right here was officially everything she had ever wanted. 

 

* * *

 

“I wasn’t joking, you know.” 

 

“Huh?” 

 

She laughed at how groggy Regina was, brown eyes only barely visible under eyelids as she lifted her head to look at Emma from her position on her chest. 

 

“About the dresses. You should absolutely try them on again.” She smiled until Regina pinched the skin over her ribcage and she yelped, laughing when she saw the satisfied look on the brunette’s face. 

 

“Shut up. You only want me for my body.” 

 

“And what a great, great body it is.” She snuck a hand down to grab Regina’s ass, and received a nip on her collarbone in response. “Hey, weren’t you meant to pick Henry up like, an hour ago?” 

 

“Nope. He’s sleeping over at Nicholas’ house.” Her voice was sleepy and relaxed and this was quite possibly the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She basked in the feeling of Regina lying practically on top of her, her fingers threaded in dark brown hair, and smooth sheets pulled over their legs- 

 

Until it hit her. “Wait. You said you were picking him up.” 

 

“Did I? Honest mistake.” But she could hear the teasing in her voice, the slight curve of her lips on her chest. 

 

“You little gremlin, you wanted me to go back and lie to my mother about meatloaf!” Regina had already burst out laughing at the word ‘gremlin’, not even bothering to deny the accusation, and Emma joined in, hating that she loved how joyful and carefree the sound was. “You’re evil.” 

 

“Yeah, but you love it.” 

 

**Author's Note:**

> as always follow me on twitter @badassbeatriz. i, much like emma, am a gay mess but also considerably more depressed. it's a real fun time.


End file.
